Enter The Blade

By Harinder Singh Sabharwal, PFS Director of Operations, PFS Senior Training Officer

It seems all Master Fu-Ling Yu needs to convince the general public is a pair of green army pants, some camouflage, an epic picture of himself with a nasty expression, his knife to the poor students throat, and Tadaaaaaa ! We have an instant “Master of the Blade” ! There is no way for a student to judge the authenticity of an edged weapons instructor because there are so few knife fighting tournaments. Most instructors will never admit that they themselves, the Grand Poo Baa’s of knife fighting, have only a slight, I mean slight 5% advantage at most over anyone that picks up a blade. The unpredictability is infinite, and the respect must be given to the opponent and the razor’s edge.

The blade is an enigma to most martial artists. The most underestimated, misunderstood, and misrepresented subject in martial arts today. With reality based martial arts becoming more mainstream, never has so much material been released on a subject that people know so little about. Intentionally or not, of all the topics to misinform your students, defense against the knife is by far the most dangerous.

Those self proclaimed experts of the blade, that teach blocking, fancy disarms, chambered blocks, low stances and secret defenses might as well be teaching their students to bring a knife to a gun fight.

Whether I am training members of the DEA or Silicon Valley Executives the most common questions I get are :

What is the Best way to hold the knife ?

The best way is going to be the fastest ! There is no time to react, you pick up your blade, or break a bottle, or pick up a piece of glass, and just point it at your opponent like a flash light. Don’t waste all that precious time on where your pinky needs to be placed, you could be training functional attributes that will save you instead of getting you killed.

What is the best type of knife to carry ? A sharp one ! Anything with an edge can be turned into a weapon of mass destruction. Don’t fuss over the type of knife, or the brand. Remember, there is never a good time for a knife fight, you must be ready to react.

What about all those Fancy techniques and Disarms ? When do I learn them ?

How many techniques do I need to learn before I become a master ? Remember, there is no time for memory. There are hundreds of techniques but you must understand the concepts and the principles of knife fighting and not box yourself into the world of memorization and regurgitation. Disarms are great to know, and to practice for self perfection. But once again, there are far greater, much more functional attributes that you should spend your time on. These attributes will save you, training with a blade is no joke. There are no second chances, only bloody consequences.

If you focus all of your attention on the points above; If you travel from seminar to seminar, flip from video to video, and focus your attention on memorizing move after move; If you try to write down every word the master says, as if it was the secret of Life; If you focus all of your attention on my finger, pointing to the moon, you will miss all of the heavenly glory in between. The space in between is where we live. In the martial arts your perception is everything. If you perceive the points above to be the most important points in knife fighting, once again you will be missing all of the heavenly glory, to paraphrase Bruce Lee.

So what do you do if a crazed maniac attacks you with a knife ? …To find out get your copy of the magazine delivered straight to your mailbox. How do you do that? Click subscribe and pick either option to get our print magazine and your all set.